From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The priceless treasure of God's kingdom   
      
   Those who are generous towards God and towards their neighbor find   
   that they cannot outmatch God in his generosity towards us. God   
   blesses us with the priceless treasures of his kingdom--freedom from   
   fear and the griping power of sin, selfishness and pride which block   
   his love and grace in our lives; freedom from loneliness, isolation   
   and rejection which keep his children from living together in love,   
   peace, and unity; and freedom from hopelessness, despair, and   
   disillusionment which blind our vision of God's power to heal every   
   hurt, bind every wound, and remove every blemish which mar the image   
   of God within us. God offers us treasure which money cannot buy. He   
   alone can truly satisfy the deepest longing and desires of our heart.   
   Are you willing to part with anything that might keep you from seeking   
   true joy with Jesus?  Mark 10:17-27   
      
      
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   December 2nd - Our Lady of Liesse   
   Also known as Our Lady, Cause of our Joy   
      
    This devotion to Our Blessed Mother originated in Egypt, and was   
   carried to France. We recognize our loving Mother, Mary, as the Cause   
   of Our Joy, for her role in the Incarnation of Jesus, and the grace   
   she mediates from Heaven. Our Lady of Liesse, Pray for us!   
      
   Devotion to Our Lady of Liesse is based upon the story of three   
   knights who brought back from Egypt a beautiful statue of Our Lady. As   
   the story is told, in 1134, three brothers, knights from the French   
   region of Laon, left on a voyage to the East. They were captured in   
   Egypt, and held prisoner by the sultan. The sultan wished to force the   
   young pious knights to renounce their faith, but they remained   
   steadfast. Trying at all costs to make them apostatize, he sent his   
   remarkably beautiful daughter to seduce them. Her name was Ismenia,   
   and she engaged them in a conversation about the Gospel, certain that   
   she would draw their attention away from the Lord and into licentious   
   behavior.   
      
   The knights, however, in describing the beauty and grace of Our   
   Blessed Mother, changed Ismenia’s heart. She requested that they carve   
   an image of Mary for her. The knights agreed, praying to the Blessed   
   Virgin to guide their hands, so that they might produce an image   
   worthy of her grace and beauty.   
      
   But they did not have to carve anything. While they slept that   
   evening, the Mother of God dispatched angels, bearing her radiant   
   image, to the knights. When they awoke, they were amazed, and when   
   Ismenia returned to the dungeons, she found them filled with a   
   dazzling light and heavenly perfume emanating from the statue. She was   
   instantly converted, and took the statue with her to her chambers. The   
   knights praised the Lord, and His Mother, crying out “Our Lady of   
   Liesse!”   
      
   The following evening, Ismenia heard the statue say: "Trust me,   
   Ismenia! I have prayed to my Son for you. You will be his faithful   
   servant. You will free my three beloved knights. You will be baptized   
   and through you, France will be enriched by countless graces. Through   
   you my name will become famous and later, I will receive you forever   
   in paradise."   
      
   Doing as she was told, Ismenia assisted the three brothers in their   
   escape, and fled back to France with them. On their journey, all four   
   were overtaken by a deep sleep, and during that sleep, heavenly angels   
   transported them to France. When they awoke, the three knights were in   
   their country, near their castle in Marchais. Ismenia was baptized and   
   they had a chapel built at the site where they had awoken, in honor of   
   Our Lady of Liesse.   
      
   Since that time, countless miracles have been reported at the site,   
   King Louis VII visited in pilgrimage in 1146, and since that time, Our   
   Lady of Liesse has become a favorite pilgrimage destination of the   
   faithful of Europe. Sadly, the original statue was destroyed during   
   the French Revolution, but the medieval basilica at Liesse remains a   
   center of devotion to the Mother of God. A new statue, created in the   
   likeness of the original, was installed and crowned there in 1857.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   He who beholds Heaven with a pure eye, sees better the darkness of   
   earth; for, although the latter seems to have some brilliancy, it   
   disappears before the splendor of the heavens.   
   --St. Ignatius of Loyola   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Judas and his brothers then said, 'Now that our enemies have been   
   defeated, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it.' So   
   they marshaled the whole army and went up to Mount Zion...They   
   restored the Holy Place and the interior of the Dwelling, and purified   
   the courts....Judas, with his brothers and the whole assembly of   
   Israel, made it a law that the days of the dedication of the altar   
   should be celebrated yearly at the proper season, for eight days   
   beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month Chislev, with rejoicing and   
   gladness." -1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 48, 59   
      
      
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   O God, who brought joy to the world by the Incarnation of Christ your   
   Son, grant to us, who honor his Mother as Cause of our Joy, the grace   
   to follow your commandments and to set our hearts on the true joys of   
   heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives   
   and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)